Wow

Isn't that picture of me hang gliding AWESOME? No, no need to smack your computer or leave me a message that there isn't a picture. There's no picture cuz I didn't get to go. I got the nice bus ride for over an hour. I got the nice walk to the place. And then they told me that all flights today were cancelled due to weather. Apparently the wind wasn't just right or something. Whatever. Weekend not starting well. Off to find plan B. BAH!

Quick note: If you'd like to see some more pictures feel free to go to: http://community.webshots.com/user/grenoblegirl Also feel free to ignore all the other pictures there. The album titled Grenoble has some that aren't on this site and some captions too. Enjoy.

Ok, so that last entry about the Coupe Icare (If I didn’t explain it well enough there, the Coupe Icare is a festival of paragliding and other in-air sports held near Grenoble. The highlight is usually on Saturday when the paragliders all dress up in very elaborate costumes to jump, but I wasn’t there for that because…) was from Friday. I wrote it right after getting home from the entire “adventure”, hence the tone of utter frustration. It was pretty cool though, wish I’d been able to see more. Quick little update here, though I don’t have a particularly large amount of time. Saturday I went to Vienne, France with my group (CEA). It was a much better trip since it was all pre-planned and arranged and paid for so all I had to do was show up at the bus station and then follow fellow anglophones around. The private tour around the city was all in French though, as was the tour of the museum, but I was actually able to understand about 90% of everything that was said so I was proud of myself. I did end up with a pretty nasty headache on the bus ride home from trying so hard to understand all day. The highlights of Vienne were the roman ruins and the cathedral. Vienne is a really really old city, originally settled by the Romans because it’s at the mouth of a river that runs from the Mediterannean up into the Alp region of France. There are ancient roman walls and pillars and foundations and a theater and a temple just chillin’ in the city surrounded by all the modern stuff. It’s so odd to see all these people eating lunch at a café next to a thousands of years old Greek temple as if it’s nothing. I can’t imagine taking that for granted. It’s really difficult for Americans to really understand and comprehend the age of something like that since, in the States, anything over 200 years old is considered “ancient”. The museum we went to after lunch was all about the Romans and how they lived in Vienne and then right outside was part of the city that they’ve excatvated and attempted to re-create a little. Fascinating and really cool.

The cathedral was probably my favorite part of the whole trip though. I’m pretty sure I liked this one better than Notre Dame. I can’t really put my finger on why, but it’s just a really open, high-ceilinged, gorgeous cathedral. The stained glass windows were an interesting mix of contemporary abstracts and characteristic story-telling picture frames. The arches were an amazing example of roman and gothic style as well, since the cathedral was built in two different architechrual periods. It’s still very much used by the community and I think feeling like I was in a real church, as opposed to a tourist site, really made me like it more. I’m thinking about even returning there to get more pictures and study the carvings and windows more. Vienne is only about a 1.5 hour bus ride northwest of Grenoble.
After that trip I ended up going for a really nice run through Grenoble. There’s a path that runs through the park near my house so I just headed out on that. It’s a really long path and when you’re surrounded by mountains and the sun is setting on them and you’re listening to good music it’s really easy to lose track of time and place and all of a sudden I was 25 minutes away from my house and had no clue where I was. It was a really great run though. I’m hoping to make it a weekend ritual. Speaking of weekends however… this is kinda going back to the Coupe Icare as well I’m doing a bit of a repeat. What? No, I’m not getting on a wrong bus and spending ridiculous amounts of money to go up a terrifying ride and get gypped by showing up at exactly the wrong time to something!! Do I look crazy? Don’t answer that. Anywho… this Friday I have an appointment to go tandem paragliding!!! (Mom and Dad, don’t freak out, only one person died in 4 days of the festival last weekend, I’ll be fine. J) So wish me luck, I’m sure I’ll have fab pictures and stories to tell about that. I won’t be online this Sunday cuz I’m taking another trip… one that I want to keep a secret for now, but next week there’ll be something up about it as well. The exciting-ness and travel has officially begun so we’re off!! (This travel and excitement was brought to you in cooperation with the Sallie Mae Foundation and Ohio Northern University. :-p)

Coupe Icare

Oh France. Oh Coupe Icare. Oh me not speaking much French. Here’s how the day went trying to get to the Coupe Icare. Someone told me the first bus didn’t leave ‘til 2:15 so I slept in… Unfortunately they lied and I could have gone early in the morning, but whatever. The people at the bus office are totally incompetent and sold me a wrong ticket, after discussing among themselves for like 10 minutes what they should sell me at all… but anyway… Ok… so I ride this (wrong, but I didn’t know it then) bus to the middle of nowhere and it just stops. NOT at the Coupe Icare… *insert first scream here*. But the bus driver was trying to be nice and pointed out another rider who was going to the Coupe Icare. So I run to catch up to this random man and manage to ask in French if he’s going to the Coupe Icare. And he says “Oui”. So we’re walking along the side of this road and we get to talking. He was actually “un pilote” and had just gone on a long trip, he left from the festival and made it like 60km or something like that and was hiking/busing it back. So I thought “Oh good, he’s going to the jump site again.” WRONG!!! *insert second scream here* We get to a little pub and he’s like “Continuez tout droit, et c’est juste la. Je veux un biere ici.” (Just keep going forward and you’ll get there, or take the Funicular. I’m gonna stop and get “un biere”). So I keep going forward which takes me to the landing zone. Which was kinda cool and a nice view and all, but I wanted to be on the top of the cliff where they jump cuz I wanted to see these crazies run off a cliff. So I start asking random people where the bus is to the top of the thing, since I bought this bus pass because the ad in the paper and my on-site coordinator back at the office said the bus went all the way up. But everyone just looked at me like I was a few screws loose and said I had to take the Funicular. So I walk the like half mile back to that and buy a round trip ticket for this thing because I assumed I’d have to take it down too. The Funicular. Ummm… what can I say about this? It’s essentially a little wooden car that goes up the side of a mountain almost vertically, but not vertically enough to be like an elevator and not scary, of course not. It was like 85 degrees and scratching metal sound and then something started beeping like an alarm system and then it went thru a tunnel and then we were pretty much tipping backwards because the pilots’ (oh yeah, I’m in this tiny car, holding on for dear life staring at the floor praying to God that I survive because there’s so many things I haven’t said or done and I don’t really want to die on the side of a mountian in France alone, with two French and one German paraglider who are all speaking in German cuz the two French guys just “happen” to know it which is making me feel like a completely uncultured idiot) gear all starts to fall back on us… so 20 minutes of this terrifying-ness and we’re at the top. There’s a whole ‘nother little village up there and I was on the verge of tears because I didn’t see any paragliders or anything like that and then there’s this little voice that says “Dana” from the bus stop at the top of the hill (oh YEAH… there’s a bus stop there. FOR A DIFFERENT BUS LINE THAN THE ONE THE IDIOTS SOLD ME!!!! *insert third scream here*) and the voice is Phil, who was SUPPOSED to have met me at 1:30 but apparently just decided to come out himself. Whatever. So I find out that the last bus for the night leaves in an hour which means I only have one hour to look around. So I run for the edge of the cliff just in time to hear the guy say that the paragliders are taking a dinner break, it’s gonna be some “entertainment” for an hour. I swear the entire world was working against me today. So two people jumped out of a plane and paraglided down in like tandem acrobatics which was pretty neat, and then came the “stunt plane”. This was really lame but the announcer was really trying to make it exciting by narrating the whole thing VERY energetically, but everyone standing there was drunk, high, or drunk and high (which I didn’t think was a really great idea since we’re all standing on the edge of a cliff…) so they were all just laughing at him. I did too, cuz it was really funny to listen to this guy. Trust me, even if you didn’t speak french it was funny… I’ll have to do an impression for you sometime on the phone. So then I run back to catch the bus back to Grenoble and I get on and show the guy the pass that I had already bought because it was the same company so I assumed it would work, and he was about to tell me “non”, but I think I looked like I’d either start bawling or beat the living snot out of him if he did that so he pauses and then goes “C’est bon.” And I almost said “You better be, c’est bon!”, but I didn’t. I just went to a seat on the bus to endure the second most terrifying ride of the day. I don’t know if this bus driver was trying to get to the birth of his first child on time or if he just had a murderous death wish but he was litterally flying down this mountain. I honestly think the entire BUS (and we’re talking large tour bus here) went airborne once or twice. And then he just barrells into a tunnel and lays on the horn, because the tunnel, of course, is only one lane and we take up the entire thing, being a bus. The way he went around curves made me glad I was sitting near the front because I guarantee I would have been whiplashed from side to side had I been sitting near the back. It was scary. But I got back to Grenoble in one piece. I got some good pictures and the mountains were really pretty. I can’t wait to go paragliding myself soon, but the entire day was pretty exhausting. Hope you all enjoy the pictures. (Ok I'll try pictures some other time, apparently the internet is hating on me right now.)

Bonjour Encore

Ok, quick response to a question I recieved... If you wanted to send a letter I don't actually know how much it would cost... thought the US Postal Service website says that Air Mail post for a letter is $0.80 so like three stamps worth... or you can go to the post office and just pay your 80 cents.

On to other things:
I’m attending the CUEF while I’m here. That stands for Centre Universitaire d’Études Française, esentially the Center for French Studies. It’s part of Stendhal University in Grenoble. It’s only for international students to learn about French language and culture so it’s nice knowing that the people there don’t speak French as a first language either and you’re all suffering through together. Classes are small for the grammar classes, which are just your proficiency level (a single number between 20 and 35) but the electives can be as big as probably 150 because some are open to everyone enrolled. We were given a list based on our level of electives available and we were able to choose which ones we wanted. It was only required that we take 4 electives, our required grammar courses and then chooses either Vocabulary or Translation. We didn’t have to register or sign up or anything, you just go to the classes that you chose. It’s acutally kind of a nice system because for the first week you can go to all the electives if you want and choose the one you like. Anyway… here’s what my schedule ended up looking like:

Lundi (Mon): 10:40 – 12:30 Grammaire
14:00 – 15:30 Littérature du XXè siècle
Mardi (Tues) : 10:40 – 12:30 Techniques
Mercredi (Wed): 8:30 – 10:20 Grammaire
16:00 – 17:30 Histoire de l’Art
Jeudi (Thurs): 8:30 – 10:20 Grammaire
13:30 – 15:30 Traduction d’Anglais
15:30 – 18:30 Histoire du cinéma français

It’s really not a bad schedule. Tuesdays are mostly free and I don’t have any classes on Fridays so I can leave Thursdays for weekend travelling! Three hours of cinema class is hard to get through, but my good friends M & M are certainly helping the situation. I was really expecting the teachers to be hard core, but they aren’t at all. They really seem to care about us understanding them and they want us to learn as much as we can. They know frustrations can run high, and they try and keep the curriculum as interesting as they can. All in all I really like the program. There are times I wish we were with French students though, so we could meet some real French people, but there are other times when it’s nice to know everyone’s in the same boat as you. I’ll try and be a totally dorky tourist and take some pictures of the school sometime for all of you.

everything in France comes in small sizes

that's a dictionary

Rain

Tiffany outside l'Ancien Palais de Justice.

The inside of the Prefecture. (below)

So Friday was beautiful here in Grenoble and the Saturday it decided to become FREEZING cold and rainy. Not fun. What was fun however was the Journees de Patrimoine. (It's really annoying that blogspot doesn't recognize accent markings). Tiffany and I went around and saw some pretty cool stuff on Saturday. But Sunday was just too cold and we wimped out after a little while.

Chateau a Sassenage

And now for some totally random thoughts:
Arabic is a really beautiful language. Met a Tunisian man in the dorms the other night, his French accent was perfectly wonderful. A lot of really rolled R's. I could have listened to him all night.
French men are really affectionate. Even in public they treat their girlfriends and wives like gold. I know a lot of American men who could take a hint from the French.
Cheese is so good here. I'll probably say that every time I'm on, but it's really really good.
Classes are ok, not much homework but I'm finding a total lack of motivation to do homework when I could be out seeing Europe instead.
ONU is my favorite again thanks to a lot of hard work from Kacy and Mme Dufault, who is my favorite person in the whole world.
Tiffany (one of the CEA kids here) is really cool to hang out with, but being from NYC she tends to do things like... talking to random guys at the tram station who turned out to be rather intoxicated and chased us yelling "We love you!" Yeah... good times in Grenoble.
The world is very very small. I met a guy from Senegal who lives in Grenoble now, but he lived in the US for a year and his ex-girlfriend is from Ohio. And one of the girls in our CEA program here went to elementary school with my roommate from last year.

For you.

J'aime...

Bonjour mes amis. Il fait du soleil en Grenoble et c'est vendredi!!! Cette weekend je visiterai les endoits de la France historique parce que c'est le weekend patrimoine.

In English... Hello everyone! It's sunny in Grenoble and it's Friday!!! This weekend I'm going to visit historical French sites beacause it's heritage weekend. This means that all the public and private historical sites are open with tours for Free!! And just quickly I wanted to run down a list of things I like about France and French culture so far:

- Pain au chocolat : Especially from the little bakery by the internet cafe, because they're always warm out of the oven there and the little old lady that makes them is just about the cutest thing ever.
- Public transportation : It may be really crowded and personal space is a joke, at least by American standards, but for 26 euro I get unlimited rides on both the tram and bus system which run anywhere in Grenoble I could want to go.
- the Language : It just sounds so much prettier than English. It kinda flows and runs together and is graceful. No wonder it's the language of love.
- Dads/Husbands : Maybe it's just Grenoble, but I've seen a LOT more dads and husbands out with the family, taking the kids for a walk, walking around the parc with their wives, helping out with family type stuff than I see in the US.
- the Centre Ville : There's always something going on around here and the little cobblestone side streets are just too perfect for words.
- my Family : I really lucked out with these people. They're a wonderful family who have taken excellent care of me and are so patient with my language skills and lack of cultural knowledge.
- the International Feeling : Hanging out in the dorms with some of my friends we've talked to a man from Tunisia, a Scottish girl, some Germans, some Japanese girls and in my class there are students from Brazil, Columbia, Korea, China, Maurice Island (apparently it's down by Madagascar), and the US. It's just really cool!!

That's all for now. My politics and economics course is having a make up class today so I've got to run to that. Hope everyone's well back in the States. Leave some love! Oh and a friendly little reminder.....

Dana Weigel
3 rue John Kennedy
38100 Grenoble
FRANCE

Settling In

So I'm starting to feel like I'm more settled here. Classes got re-arranged and I'm in a different level now. I like the teacher a lot better, and the format of the class is better too. It's really nice having a set schedule. And Sunny found the Ultimate Frisbee Grenoble Club team, so we practice with them three nights a week now. They're a really nice group of people. It's a good way to practice and improve our French too. I like having something to do in the evenings. My french is slowly but surely getting better so I can communicate more and more with my host family. Looking forward to maybe getting out of Grenoble and seeing more of Europe, thought that all depends on a few things. The weather's still beautiful, partly cloudy and usually in the 60s. Things are good, but I'm already looking forward to getting home a little... is that bad? Anyone have any questions about life here or anything? I feel like I'm starting to run out of things to say. Hope everyone else is having a fabulous school year and everything!! Leave some love!

Some pictures

View from the park next to my apartment

My room











Above: Eyridice, the family cat. Pictures of my family's apt/condo

Hiking Today (make sure to read the entry below this too)

Here's me, Phil, and Sunny on the way up. We still look like happy, rested campers at this point.

Here's the view from the top. This is a really good picture of how Grenoble is in a valley, a real ring of mountains. It was also nice and clear today... so I think we say the outline of Mont Blanc (which is the highest point in Euope) but in this picture it would be behind me.



Here's Aileen at the bottom of the stairs. Sorry the picture is so dark, but let's just say that at an average descending stair rate it took us between 5 and 7 minutes to get to the bottom. At least we didn't have to go up them. And I think Aileen's face says it all.






Wow, so I’ve been here a week, and yet it feels like a lifetime. Four months is either gonna seem like an eternity and a half, or I’ll get into a schedule soon and things will roll along quickly. I also still have this head cold, so I’m a little pessimistic. I went home early and got lots of sleep because this morning we went for a hike in the mountains. It’s not technically the Alps, is the Chartreuse, but that’s like a sub range of the Alps, so for coolness’ sake let’s just say I went hiking in the Alps. We went up to the Bastille, an old fort overlooking the city and then continued up to some old ruins and a monument for World War II vets, the city was apparently liberated in 1944, really close to the end of the war. The views were amazing, the day was perfect, if not a bit humid, the sky was clear and it was really nice to just hang out and talk with Aileen, Phil, and Sunny. Up and down took us three and a half hours and it definitely showed me that I’m not in quite as good of shape as I had thought. It was pretty steep, but there were a lot of stairs. At the end my legs were actually involuntarily shaking, so it felt really nice to sit and eat at a café… a little splurge since they’re kind of expensive. I definitely want to hike some more, get in awesome shape, and get to know the other students. Then we went over to the National French Bouldering Competition. They have fake “boulders” set up and different courses and the competitors have a certain amount of time to get up. It was pretty amazing actually. Then it got stormy, rain comes on pretty quickly and without much warning, because the mountains block a good deal of your view and the clouds just come over really fast and dump. Tonight we’re going out to a Latin dance club. A German girl in the dorms is celebrating her 21st birthday and wanted to go to this club, and Aileen is actually a choreographer and has been teaching me and Phil some moves, so it should be a good time. Really tired, so I’m gonna take a nap before we head out. Keep the comments coming! Enjoy the pictures.

That's bouldering. I'd kill for arms and shoulders like that.

Oh... and another thing I learned about French language; everyone knows that yes in French is "oui" (pronounced "we") but did you know that if you're really familiar with the person or it's your peer, their version of "yeah" is pronounced "way". The more you know... *insert star*

KEEP READING

THIS IS NEW TOO

View from campus.
The building near the bottom is the library.
And no, that's not snow on the top yet, the drought a few years ago here caused the top of the mountain to catch on fire so there's no trees on the top anymore.

Here's the group before orientation at school. We're actually sitting in the hallway there. From the top...
Left is Brandi. Right is Phil.
Aileen Tiffany (she's in the
shadow a little)
Amanda Laura
Sunny

OK, so I just found out that my church put this blog’s address in the Sunday bulletin, so I’ll do a quick recap:

I’ve moved to Grenoble, France (southeastern part of the country, in the Alps, near Italy) to study French language and culture. I’ve been here for one full week now. I live with a French family just outside of the main part of town. They are fabulous and being with them has definitely helped me learn French faster, although it’s really easy to remember and learn new stuff when you’re totally surrounded by it. Grenoble is the most fabulous city. It’s big enough to have a lot to do but also small enough that I don’t feel totally lost. There’s 7 other people in my particular group, CEA, who has set up my living arrangements and everything. The other students definitely represent all different types, which is kind of nice, and our on-site director is incredibly knowledgeable and kind. Classes here aren’t bad, the college is all international students, and we’re put in levels to make sure we’re at a level that’s good for us. Overall I’m really having a good time, though I’ll be looking forward to getting back home in January.

There’s a lot of things I’ve learned about France even in just a week. There are four things the French like:
1) Their language – The French pretty much view their language as the main symbol of their entire nation and culture. If you attempt to speak it they really do appreciate it. Parisians might be a bit short and rude when it comes to foreigners, but if you think about it, New Yorkers are too. In Grenoble I’ve actually been helped quite a few times. They try and do everything in French, but if they speak English they’ll switch to it if necessary. My family has even helped to teach me correct grammar and idiomatic phrases.
2) Wine – The French seem to like any alcoholic beverage, but wine especially. There’s a drink before dinner, wine with dinner, drinks after dinner, drinks out at the bar, drinks at lunch, drinks if you get together with anyone, it’s almost insane. Wine is about 3 € or 4€, which is under $5.00 American. Bottled carbonated water is about the same price, for a lot less actual fluid. It’s really funny. The Grenoble area is famous for Chartreuse, a drink made of hundreds of kinds of plants by monks in the Chartreuse Mountains.
3) Bread – Bread is served all the time. If you were on the Atkins diet you would NOT do very well here. There are boulangeries (bakeries) about every block an a half in downtown Grenoble and even out here where I live, there’s a fresh loaf of bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s kinda nice, because it goes with everything, especially….
4) CHEESE – There are 5 courses in a formal French dinner, cheese being one of them. (The others are apperitifs (drinks before dinner), salade, le plat (main course), and dessert.) At the end of the main course and before dessert out comes a plate of cheese. That’s not just at formal dinners, that’s at every single meal. There’s usually about 4 or 5 different kinds of cheese and you just take a slice of the ones you want, spread it on your bread and off you go. The cheese here is different though. It’s not served particularly cold; they take it out of the fridge at the beginning of dinner so that by the time the cheese course comes around it’s about room temperature. It’s also a lot creamier too. My favorite so far is chèvre, which is goat cheese. It has kind of a strong taste, but it’s really good.

So what are some myths about the French? The women here do shave. It’s not an every single day thing like in the US (God bless them for that) but I haven’t seen a single “hairy” woman… so stop thinking that. The French also dress a lot like Americans. Jeans, t-shirt, sandals… it’s all popular over here. They don’t really wear t-shirts that advertise their schools or a certain place, they tend to be plain or with just random decoration on them, but especially at the university people definitely wear them. I’ve seen more women here with skirts or dresses, but it’s not like required or anything. It’s pretty easy-going for the most part I think. If you want to wear it no one’s going to look at you strangely, the French are a lot less judgmental.

French radio is something altogether different though. How do I even begin to describe this? OK… they have their own French pop and top 40 kinda stuff of course but they also have a few international songs because the population of Grenoble is pretty diverse. But then add in the worst 50 songs in the past two decades of American music. I don’t know how they manage to pick only the worst stuff, but it’s amazing. Especially bad 80s music. That’s really popular here.

Another thing the French like? Their dogs. Well really their pets in general, but dogs seem to be incredibly popular. It’s probably against about a million health codes in every even slightly developed country, but there isn’t anywhere dogs aren’t allowed in this country. Small dogs, big dogs, it doesn’t matter. There’s lots of parks for them to play in and special sections set aside as doggy bathrooms, though no one heeds them it seems. Even in my family they have pictures of their old dog everywhere, like a family member who died. And after dinner we all wind up playing with the cat it seems like. And you don’t really see any strays around. Even the few homeless that Grenoble has have dogs that are fairly well taken care of and fed all things considered. The dogs are also trained really well so leashes are pretty much non-existent except for younger puppies.

So lots of info there, hope it wasn't too much. Laters!

Yay for American keyboards!!

So I finally figured out how to get an American keyboard at the internet cafe... but I only have 132 minutes left on my account so maybe it won't matter for long. Anyway, I'll have a long update coming soon with pictures, but just wanted to say hi. Classes are hard but not too hard and I really like my family more and more. Friends are all cool too. Looking forward to some neat travelling. I think tomorrow we're going to the national bouldering competition and on a hike. Hope everyone back in the 'states is doing well. A bientot.

Ma premier classe

Les boules - It's how you get from the town below to la Bastille, an old fort on the side of a mountain nearby.









View of the town from la Bastille.






D'accord je ne sais pas what's going on with this blog... Je sais it looks a little screwed up, so bear with me until je trouve un personne francais qui sais l'ordinateurs. Today was my first class at the CUEF (my university in short terms). Tiffany is in the class with me, but it was certainly an interesting morning. I have class lundi (Monday) et Mercredi (Wednesday) at 8h30 (8:30am) but it's about a 30 min bus ride from my apartment to the uni so I have to be out at the bus stop at 7h45 in order to make it, but this morning j'ai oublie (I forgot) my bus pass so I had to go back and get it and then I was all flustered and made a wrong turn out of the apt complex... and long story short I walked into class late. But it was ok. Mon prof est tres sympa (my teacher is really nice). I can understand her pretty well and she's good about explaining things too. There are about 15 of us in the class and there's quite a few Americans, a Russian woman, a Brazilian, a Canadian, a Mexican, three Japanese, and a Chinese student. It's pretty cool that all of us can communicate in a single language together, and since we're in a high level (32 out of 35) we all communicate pretty well. J'ai un classe d'histoire de l'art cette apres midi (I have an art history class this afternoon) and a lot of the other CEA students are in it as well, so there will be people I know. It's a rather large classe, je pense c'ess dans l'amphirice (I think it's in the lecteur hall). We went out last night and met up with a german couple and a girl from just south of Scotland with the coolest english accent ever. It was good times, but it's really hard for me to get home after the bus stops running (at 8h) so I have to take the tram and then walk about a half mile or maybe a little more. Needless to say, I'll be in excellent shape by the end of this experience. More to come later, thank you all so much for the comments and e-mails... they're a nice connection back home. A bientot! - Dana

Sorry about the confusion, not sure what happened, its probably this supid french keyboard. Ill start dragging my laptop to university soon, so itll be ok then. Enjoy.

Ok, so I’ve decided it’s probably best to write out the entries in advance and then save them to my pen drive and just take that to the internet café for now. Once I get my class schedule I can probably take my computer to school and use it there. Yay, my host brother, Guillaume (say it G-ey (like key with a soft G) ome) just said hi. He kinda stays in his room and chills on his computers as far as I’ve been able to tell. So far things have been really good. The CEA on-site director is wonderful. Il s’appelle Patrick Foley and he’s really friendly, really patient, and really knowledgeable; all of which certainly help me while I’m here. The other students run the range of personalities, but I have a feeling I know who I’ll be close to.
Yesterday night we all just hung out with a student who was here last semester, she was helping Patrick, and she had a lot of cool street-smart stuff to tell us about the whole city. Then today we had a meeting and a french lunch, which is the big meal of the day, where Patrick tried to teach us a lot about French etiquette and such. It was really interesting. Lots of tradition in France though it depends on your family. Then we had free time. Aileen, Phil, Brandi et moi went to a street faire. It was kinda cool to see all the stalls and people. We tried to speak french the entire time and I feel a lot more prepared for the test tomorrow. I still have a hard time understanding some people, but I’m picking it up ridiculously fast! I already am able to have actual miniature conversations about my day and such with my host family, though the big test is tonight when I eat dinner with them for the first time.

My room door is rather interesting, with some chinese characters and a marajuana leaf… it’s their oldest son’s old room, so I just won’t ask… he works at a bar downtown now and doesn’t live at home. I’m living in an apartment complex about a 10 ou 15 minute bus ride outside of le centre ville, which is the old part of town with a lot of the shops and such. It’s actually more like 25 mintues to the university by tram, the bus may be faster. Those are the two modes de transportation around la ville. Both are very easy to figure out and les grenoblois are incredibly helpful, friendly people. Phil – another CEA student – lives only about a 4 minute walk through a beautiful parc away from me, so it’s nice that we can travel a lot together, we try and talk in french but sometimes you just really need to lapse back into english. We also enjoy “franglais” which is a fabulous combination of the languages. As I’m reading back through this, I believe I’m writing in franglais… good for me, maybe not so good for you?

Time is really different here, not just actual time (la France est 6h ahead of Ohio), but… how do I explain myself? People eat a small breakfast at like 7 or 8 in the morning and then have about a two hour lunch from 12 – 2. Cafes aren’t open for lunch any other time. They look at you as if you’re insane if you come before 12 or after 2 for lunch. And people really do take the full two hours. Meals aren’t just pour nourriture, they’re for comraderie and relaxation. It’s actually kinda cool. Food really is an art here. The earliest anyone really eats dinner is at like 7:30 or so. Any earlier than that is pretty much unheard of, at least so far. Tonight ma mere is making dinner and we’re eating a 20h (8pm). Even after a full day of walking and trams and such, I’m not going to be hungry until then… the food is delicieux and very filling.

My room is small, but after visiting Aileen’s dorm room today, I feel totally lucky. My room is about the same size as hers, but I have a really really nice family and an entire apartment downstairs for me as well. Family stays are definitely the way to go. Speaking of which… I’m going to go aider ma mere make dinner. Keep the comments and e-mails coming, they really mean a ton to me!!! And paper mail is wicked cool too… (even though I haven’t gotten any yet). And if there was a french word ou deux in this entry that you didn’t understand let me know and I’d be happy to explain! You can learn french with me!! A bientot – Dana

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